Ignoble intentions create ignoble laws.

Anyone who still thinks that throwing money at the poor is good for them should read a well reasoned article by Arvind Panagariya, Professor of Indian Political Economy at Columbia University in the US. The Land Acquisition Bill has made it almost impossible for companies to buy agricultural land because of all the clearances required from different ministries. This is supposed to protect farmers from predators but, at the same time, it has made it impossible for farmers to sell land if they want to start another business. The Food Security Bill is going to add so much expense that the government is starting to cut other programs to finance it. If essential expenditure, such as on infrastructure, is reduced it will reduce long term growth. The Right To Education act has added an extra tax on the middle class because they are having to bear the burden of private schools being forced to reserve 25% of seats for children of poor people. Of course, most of the teaching is done at home and all these children would be at a serious disadvantage because a lot of their parents are illiterate. If a large number of these children start failing their exams the scheme would be seen as a failure so all exams till class ten Boards have been eliminated, so no one knows if their child is learning anything or not. Without exams there is no pressure on teachers to teach so standards, which were abysmal to start with, have dropped even lower. The NGO Pratham reports that in rural government schools the proportion of children in the third grade who could identify numbers from 1 to 100 have dropped from 70% in 2010 to 54% in 2012. To mask the terrible standards of our schools the government has not signed up for the Programme for International Student Assessment test in 2015, having opted out in 2012. This is a test for 15 year old children, held every 3 years, which tests their abilities in maths, science and reading. In 2009 we came second last, just above Kyrgyzstan. Prof Panagariya thinks that all these laws were enacted out of noble intentions. But we know different. We know that our politicians are scum and to prove it they are trying desperately to overturn a Supreme Court judgement which bans politicians convicted of serious crimes from holding on to their seats. Dishonorable politicians create ignoble laws.